In 2014, the City Council created the Shores Advisory Committee to advice the City Council on the development of the Shores Park, which sits outside the footprint of the Winston School. During 2015 and 2016, the Committee, along with architectural consultant Schmidt Design Group, worked to obtain input from the community and surrounding neighbors on the desired amenities and activities for the park, and to prioritize these amenities and activities based upon overall community interest. As a result of the community input, the Schmidt Design Group categorized certain amenities and uses as Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 based upon the level and strength of input.

This work resulted in three concept diagrams, presented to the Council in January 2016, for the Park that showed the preferred park amenities, solely contained outside of the footprint of the Winston School. All three of these bubble diagrams contained the Tier 1 amenities, with some capturing Tier 2 and Tier 3 concepts. The bubble diagrams, as stated at the 2016 Council meeting, were not intended as choices, but concepts on how the Park could be utilized. The bubble diagrams represented no changes to the Winston School.

After many starts and stops, as well as the addition of a new head of the Winston School, on January 19, 2017, the City Council altered its approach and approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Winston School for a collaborative shared-use master planning effort with the Winston School and the adjacent Shores Park. Under the MOU, the City agreed to work with the Winston School to co-develop the entire property, including the Winston School itself, not just the Shores Park portion. Accordingly, the Schmidt Design Group, along with the Winston School’s architect, OBR Architecture, utilized the previously gathered community input and the original bubble diagrams to create three additional bubble diagrams of the entire property.

On May 1, the City Council was presented with the three new bubble diagrams. The new bubble diagrams incorporated all of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 amenities, and many of the Tier 3 amenities that the community previously identified, and married them up to the Winston School redevelopment plan. Compared to the original three bubble diagrams, the new diagrams represent three possibilities on what the entire property could look like once complete.

After largely positive public feedback, the Council decided to keep all six bubble drawings in play and obtain cost estimates on all six concepts. As the original three bubble drawings did not incorporate the Winston School redevelopment, the Shores Advisory Committee, at their May 10 meeting, requested that the Council honor the commitment made to the Winston School under the MOU and proceed with cost estimates as well as solicit additional community input on the latest three bubble diagrams. The Committee stated this would allow the community to continue with the process of providing input on the bubble diagrams and “cherry pick” or alter the design of the community’s most preferred amenities and concepts allowing the Schmidt Design Group to move closer toward a single design for the community and the Council to review and approve.